Kian Soltani

Hailed by The Times as a “remarkable cellist” and described by Gramophone as “sheer perfection”, Kian Soltani’s playing is characterised by a depth of expression, sense of individuality and technical mastery, alongside a charismatic stage presence and ability to create an immediate emotional connection with his audience. He is now invited by the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and recital promoters, propelling him from rising star to one of the most talked about cellists performing today.

In 2022/23 Soltani opens this season with many festival appearances including BBC Proms, Bregenz Festspiele, Rheingau Musik Festival, Vaduz Classic Festival, Tsinandali Festival, and Kronberg Festival. He continues to appear in other festivals throughout the year in Samobor Festival in Croatia, as well as Cello Biennale in Amsterdam. In between and following the festivals will be populated with his debut with Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jader Bignamini, tour with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and his return to Vienna Symphony and Festival Strings Lucerne in the Spring.

Recent orchestral highlights include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya. Soltani was Artist-in-Residence at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in July 2021 in which he curated concerts including a Persian evening with the Shiraz Ensemble. Soltani commenced a multi-year residency with Junge Wilde at Konzerthaus Dortmund in Autumn 2018. As a recitalist, Soltani has recently performed at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals, Wigmore Hall and the Boulez Saal, where he was invited to curate an evening of cello music.

In 2017, Soltani signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and his first disc “Home”, comprising works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, was released to international acclaim in 2018, with Gramophone describing the recording as “sublime”. Soltani has since recorded discs including the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky Piano Trios with Lahav Shani and Renaud Capucon, recorded live at Aix Easter Festival in 2018 released by Warner Classics and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim in August 2020.

He recently won Innovative Listening Experience Award at the coveted Opus Klassic Awards 2022, Germany’s most prestigious classical music prize which honours outstanding artists and recordings, for his “Cello Unlimited” album released back in October 2021. He has worked on this latest disc with Deutsche Grammophon during the entirety of 2020, and it is a celebration of the cello and film music. Of the disc, Soltani wrote “Everything you will hear on this album is made only and exclusively with my cello and played only by me. The possibilities of this instrument are unlimited and infinite, and this album is a celebration of the instrument and of epic film music as well”.

Soltani attracted worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki. In February 2017 Soltani won Germany’s celebrated Leonard Bernstein Award and in December 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.

Born in Bregenz, Austria, in 1992 to a family of Persian musicians, Soltani began playing the cello at age four and was only twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti’s class at the Basel Music Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation scholarship holder in 2014 and completed his further studies as a member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany’s Kronberg Academy. He received additional important musical training at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.

Kian Soltani plays “The London, ex Boccherini” Antonio Stradivari cello, kindly loaned to him by a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.